Part 2 of 2
Phase 2 (1782-1822)The second phase in the history of EzV interpretation begins in 1782, with the publication of Pierre Sonnerat's (1749-1814) Voyage aux Indes Orientales. Sonnerat informs us (1.7) that he has been fortunate enough to gather information on the true nature of India's mysterious Veda; and he owes this new information at least indirectly to the EzV. "I had in my possession a copy of the so-called translation of the Ezour-Vedam preserved at the Royal Library. I showed it to a learned but fanatic Bramin; and, since this book did not at all correspond to the impression he wanted to give me of his religion, he felt obliged to initiate me into its mysteries." Sonnerat's principal statement (1.215) on the nature of the EzV, which has been used again and again by modern scholars, deserves to be cited in full. "One ought to guard oneself against including among the canonical books of the Indians the Ezourvedam, of which there is a so-called translation in the Royal Library, and which has been published in 1778. It is definitely not one of the four Vedams, notwithstanding its name. It is a book of controversy, written by a missionary at Masulipatam. It contains a refutation of a number of Pouranons devoted to Vichenou, which are several centuries later than the Vedams. One sees that the author has tried to reduce everything to the Christian religion; he did introduce a few errors, though, so that one would not be able to recognize the Missionary under the disguise of a Bramin. Anyhow, Mr. Voltaire and a few others were wrong, when they gave this book an importance which it does not deserve, and when they regarded it as canonical." Sonnerat made it clear, for the first time, that the EzV was a Christian rather than a Hindu document. Voltaire had been misled, even though he too had noticed the close connection with Christianity. On 1 October 1761 he wrote (Best. 9262) to his friend Jacob Vernes: "You would be surprised to find in this manuscript some of your own opinions, but you would also see that the ancient Brachmans who thought like you and your friends were more courageous than you."
Notwithstanding Sonnerat's discovery a number of European writers seem to have remained unaware of the controversy raised by the EzV, and they continue to regard it as an authentic document. In 1792 the French encyclopedist philosopher Jacques-Andre Naigeon (1738-1810) reprints Sainte-Croix' edition in its entirety in his Philosophie ancienne et moderne, as the sole - lengthy - "addition" to Diderot's - short- article on the philosophy of the Indians; it is labeled: "Exposition des opinions religieuses & philosophiques des Indiens." More than ten years later Carl Christian Schmidt, "minister of the counts of Leiningen-Westerburg and consistorial," inserts (1803: 19-47) in his Repertorium fur die Literatur der Bibel a whole chapter with "Passages from the Ezour-Vedam, compared with passages from the Old and New Testaments." He believes (20) that "the Commentary on the Vedam cannot have been composed without written or oral familiarity on the part of its author with the Bible and the teachings of Christianity." To be sure, it is difficult to recognize Christ under the disguise of Chrixnou; "Christ is described in a most frightful manner, partly under influence of the teachings of Christianity themselves, partly because of the attitude of the priests who did not look favorably upon the introduction of a foreign religion." Also (19), "Voltaire and others went too far; by trying to make the book more ancient than the Bible. Voltaire has made it a target of hate, with the result that people refuse to find anything worthwhile in the Commentary on the Vedam." The time has come now objectively to compare the EzV with the Bible; hence Schmidt quotes forty-four passages, via Ith's German translation, and provides references to parallel passages from both Testaments. Bohlen (1830:135) describes Schmidt as an example of those who "attack the antiquity of the Pseudo-Vedas and, through it, of Sanskrit literature generally, without however in any way questioning the authenticity of the dubious book." Another case in point is the French philosopher Felicite-Robert de Lamennais (1782- 1854), who wrote his Essai sur l'indifference en matiere de religion between 1817 and 1821. He repeatedly refers to Sainte-Croix' EzV (131, 155, 243-6 with long quotations, 300-1), without insisting on its authenticity but also without in the least doubting it. Schwab wonders (1950:168) that, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, one goes on quoting a text which by then had been totally discredited; but he adds: "at least, when it happens with the pen of a man such as Lamennais, one can say that a book, meant for missionary work, reverts to its natural usage." A similar case is reported by Soderblom (1926:330): "In the 'Samling af de alste folkslagens religionsurkunder ofver deras religiongsbegrepp och mysterier: published anonymously by C. M. Schoerbing in Stockholm 1820, there is also the translation of a passage from the 'Ezur Veda;' in this book it ranks first among the sources of Indian literature which are reproduced in it."
The staunchest champion of the authenticity of the EzV was -- and remained -- Anquetil Duperron. Although he "had passed many years of his life in India and professed a profound knowledge of its religion, antiquities and literature" (Ellis 1822:3), he refused to be convinced by the arguments put forth by Sonnerat and, later, Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo. In Oupnek'hat (1801-02:1.xviii n) the EzV still figures among the source materials to be consulted on Indian philosophy. And in his notes to the French translation of Paulinus' Voyage to the East Indies (1808:3.120-2) there is a long passage in which he attacks Sonnerat "whose magisterial assertions cannot be trusted when it comes to erudition about India," and Paulinus to whom he applies the Latin maxim: plus negaret asinus quam probam philosophus" an ass can deny more than a wise man can prove."
We also know that the editor of the EzV, the Baron de Sainte-Croix, remained unaffected by the attacks until the time of his death. Silvestre de Sacy (1809:xiii) informs us: "Mr. de Sainte-Croix abandoned the idea to bring out a second edition of the Ezour-Vedam, and to enrich his notes with the help of the works of the English scholars. He did have the intention to reply to the very harsh criticisms of the Missionary (i.e. Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo], but did not have the time to realize this project." Sacy himself remained faithful to Sainte-Croix, and again defended him in 1817. When Sainte-Croix (1778:2.95) uses the EzV to show that in India too the phallus cult is considered something horrible, Sacy notes (1817:2.68n) that Sonnerat and Paulinus deny the authority of the EzV and maintain that it was written by a missionary. Yet, "one might ask, I think, whether Sonnerat and Father Paulinus, when they advance such a paradox, have actually read the Ezour-Vedam. Whatever the learned missionary may say, this book, which is directed against the idolatrous cult of the Indians, would be a very strange catechism of the Christian religion."
However, the stubborn defense by Anquetil and Sainte-Croix, together with the innocent quotations by authors such as Lamennais, are now the exceptions. Rarely has the EzV been recognized as an authentic document, after 1782. One scholar even claims to have discovered the forgery independently of Sonnerat. Gottfried Less' Geschichte der Religion (1884) deals at great length with the EzV in the chapter on "The Sacred Books of the Indians" (1886:416-24). The author stresses three points. First, much in the EzV reminds us of the Bible, and must have been taken from that source. Second, passages of Pure Religion alternate with superstition, errors, and ignorance of the worst kind. Third, both in content and expression many things are European, specifically French. "If we add all this up together, I cannot help considering the book as the fabrication of some European and French missionary. A missionary such as there are many among the perfidious writers of the Lettres edifiantes! Either this missionary has contrived it in its entirety, probably with the same goal with which the Sibylline Books were once composed, in order to convert the Indian pagans to Christianity without their realizing it. Or in his translation he has changed and recast a true Indian book in such a way that one can no longer separate the author from the translator, which means that it is of no use whatever." Less finally points out that, after he had written these pages, he was confirmed in his opinion by Sonnerat, whose travel account appeared two years earlier.
I do not know whether other arguments have been added to those of Sonnerat and Less. Anyhow, as early as 1786. August Hennings no longer hesitates to write (373) that "today no one believes any longer in the authenticity of the Ezurvedam, which he [i.e. the editor] claimed to be authentic."
In the nineties the Carmelite missionary Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo (1749-1806) attacked the authenticity of the EzV in his own characteristic way in at least four of his works. The most severe and substantial attack came in 1791, in Systema Brahmanicum (315-7). "The Ezourvedam is the notorious gift from the most learned prince of philosophers, Voltaire who, because of his zeal to promote Indian arts and sciences -- a zeal with which the good man was inflamed -- presented it to the Royal library in Paris. But does Voltaire really know what the Ezourvedam is? Does he know what is in the book? Does he know its author? Has he read the book? Did he make sure that this is an authentic book? The Yajiurvedam, not the Ezourvedam, contains the Samscrdamic Brahmanic precepts that teach how to perform the yagam, i.e. the sacrifice to the sun, ... The Ezourvedam, Voltaire's notorious gift that found its way into the Royal library in Paris, or rather which he pressed upon them to use it as the foundation for his own philosophical superstructure, is a manuscript composed by a missionary in India, at Masulipatam on the Coromandel coast, against the gentiles, and in which the author refutes the pagan religion of the Indians. For it to be read more eagarly by the gentiles, and in order that they be confused by reading it, he called it with a false name: Ezourvedam. See Sonnerat vol. 2, book 3, page 41. A copy of this manuscript was presented, by whom I do not know, to Mr. Voltaire, and he gave it to the Royal library. And what do modern European scholars do with it? With singular zeal and effort they scrutinize the Brahmanic law, i.e. the Ezourvedam; they comment on it, interpret it, build philosophical structures on it, and, like bags inflated and distended by the wind, with rattling cheeks, knitting their eye-brows, they educate the people and the king alike.23 But behold! one gust of wind, and the whole structure of the building lies in ruin! The book falsely called Ezourvedam, is a Christian book, which refutes the superstitions of the Brahmans in the Tamil language, and, as such, goes against the Brahmanic law. See La guida Scientifica, p. 460, note 1. 24 The author says: Si veda l'istesso Ezourvedam, ove si combattono ancora varie sorti d'Indiane superstizioni. So, the Ezourvedam goes against the Brahmanic books and the Indian pagans; and it is this book that is thrust upon us as the law, as the true source of Indian religion, from which we ought to derive a knowledge of things Indian. What shall we conclude from all this? That our philosophers are either dumb idiots, or in fact remarkable impostors. The best solution for the dilemma may well be to call them both. Their immense debates and their differences of opinion on foreign peoples clearly show that they have little if any knowledge of Indian chronology, religion, and philosophy, and that, without any basis, out of their fiery heads, they just try to deceive the imbecile and the ignorant." In Examen Historico-criticum (1792:42) the EzV is again called "not an authentic Indian work, but a spurious, supposititious, and contemptible book." Paulinus sets forth a number of criteria which help determine whether or not a particular text is a genuine Sanskrit book, and he quotes the EzV as an example to show that a text is spurious. The Museum Borgianum (1793) casually refers to "the author of the preliminary remarks on the spurious Ezourvedam" (151), and "the author of the spurious book entitled Ezourvedam" (243). The Viaggio alle Indie Orientali (1796:66) contains the remark: "the Ezour-Vedam ... , a book composed by a missionary, and falsely attributed to the Brahmins" (1808: 1.170), which provoked the above mentioned criticism by Anquetil Duperron.
Phase 3 (from 1822)The beginning of the third phase in the history of EzV interpretation is connected with the names of Sir Alexander Johnston and Francis Whyte Ellis. Johnston25 not only discovered a manuscript of the EzV in India; he found a whole collection of similar texts. The place where the manuscripts were preserved left little doubt about their origin: the house of the Catholic missions at Pondicherry. We have an anonymous account of Johnston's discovery. 26 "At a moment when everything relating to the celebrated Society of the Jesuits excites considerable interest in this country as well as on the Continent, it may be well to make known to the public, more generally than it is at present, a circumstance relative to a missionary of that Society, who resided in India nearly 200 years ago; because it will at once show the extraordinary talent of the Jesuits generally, and the great knowledge of the Sanscrit language, and the Hindoo religion and manners, acquired by the members of that Society, who were sent into the East as well as the zeal and perseverance with which they promoted, according to their own views of this duty, the conversion of the natives of India from Hindooism to Christianity, Sir Alexander Johnston, when chief justice and president of his Majesty's council in Ceylon, having, in consequence of his suggestions upon the subject, been authorized by his Majesty's ministers to frame a special code, which might be applicable to the religious feelings, local circumstances, and peculiar customs of all the different castes and descriptions of Native inhabitants of that island, felt it to be his duty, in the first instance, to ascertain as nearly as he could the authenticity of all those books, Indian as well as European, which were generally believed to contain the most correct information respecting the real tenets of the Brahmanical and Buddhist religions. Amongst other European books, the authenticity of which he was desirous of ascertaining. was the 'Ezour Vedam,' a work in French, which Voltaire, in his 'Age of Louis the Fifteenth,' had announced to be a French translation made from a very ancient and original Sanscrit work, by a most respectable Bramin of the Pagoda of Seringham, who had rendered great services to the French at Pondicherry, but which work Monsieur Sonnerat had, subsequently to Voltaire's publication, suspected to be the production of some French Missionary. Sir Alexander Johnston, while on a journey to Madras from the island of Ramisserum, which is situated between the northwest part of the island of Ceylon, and the south-east extremity of the peninsula of India, and which is as celebrated for its sanctity in the southern part, as Jaggernaut is in the northern part of Hindoostan, determined, if possible, to ascertain whether the original of the 'EzourVedam' was or was not a Sanscrit work. With this view, in travelling through the several provinces of Tinnevelly, Ramnad, Madura, Trichinopoly, and Tanjore, he made the most particular inquiries upon the subject at all the Pagodas of any note in those provinces, amongst others, at the Pagodas of Ramisserum, Trichindore, Tinnevelley, Madura, Tanjore, Combeconum, Chillumbrum, and particularly at that of Seringham. He could not, however, find the least trace amongst the Bramins of those Pagodas of any translation ever having been made into French of a Sanscrit work, called the 'Ezour Vedam,' nor that any such work was ever written, either by a Bramin of the Pagoda of Seringham, or of any other Pagoda in those provinces. Extending his inquiries still farther on the subject, Sir Alexander Johnston went to the French settlement of Pondicherry, and there having obtained the permission of Count Dupuis, the French Governor of that place, examined, in company with Colonel Fraser, the English Political Resident there, all the manuscript works in the Jesuits' College of Pondicherry. Among these he found the manuscript copy of the 'Ezour Vedam' in French and Sanscrit. He immediately mentioned this circumstance to the late Mr. Ellis, then the principal member, and most learned ornament of the College of Madras. At the request of Sir Alexander, and for the purpose of deciding on the authenticity of the work in question, Mr. Ellis (than whom no one could be better qualified for this task) entered into a minute examination of the manuscripts, and ultimately produced a very learned dissertation on the subject, which is inserted in the fourteenth volume of the 'Asiatic Researches,' wherein he proves that the 'Ezour Vedam' is not the French translation of a Sanscrit original, as was believed by Voltaire, but a work entirely composed by the celebrated Jesuit, Robert de Nobilibus, in the year 1621, for the express purpose of promoting, by this 'pious fraud,' the conversion of the Hindoos to Christianity!"
Francis Whyte Ellis'27 posthumous article -- rather, monograph -- in the fourteenth volume of the Asiatic Researches, in 1822,28 is probably the most important and influential contribution to the study of the EzV. Ellis pays tribute (55 n.A) to his predecessor. "The manuscripts described in the ... essay ... were discovered, as it may justly be said, for the knowledge of their existence was previously confined to a few individuals belonging to the mission, by Sir Alexander Johnston, the chief justice of the island of Ceylon, and Captain Fraser, the British resident at Pondicherry, during a visit of the former gentleman to the coast. It was from Sir Alexander Johnston, also that I received the printed copy of the Ezour Vedam, and the information which induced me to make the inquiries respecting these manuscripts, the result of which I have here stated."
Ellis' account -- which antedates the anonymous article quoted earlier -- made known (41) for the first time the existence, at Pondicherry, not only of what may have been the original of Voltaire's EzV but also of other similar works." ... it was chance that enabled me to ascertain that the original of this work still exists among the manuscripts in the possession of the Catholic missionaries at Pondicherry, which are understood to have originally belonged to the society of Jesuits. Besides the Ezour Vedam, there are, also, among these manuscripts, imitations of the other three Vedas; each of these are in Sanscrit. in the Roman character, and in French, these languages being written on the opposite pages of the manuscripts, to give them the appearance of originals with translations annexed."
He gives examples of the transliterated sanskrit verses, and compares them with the French translations. This allows him to draw conclusions on the place of origin and on the authorship of the EzV, to which I shall return later in this study. All eight manuscripts are described in detail, with an interesting note on No. 7 (27) : "At the end of this manuscript are two dates on a slip of paper, on which the concluding lines of the translation are written, one is 'Annee 1732: the other 'Annee 1751.' "
The Asiatic Researches, published by the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, may not have had a wide circulation in Europe outside the limited circles of those directly interested in things Indian.29 Yet, those who read Ellis' article were convinced by it. They in turn wrote about the true origin of the EzV, and made the discovery at Pondicherry known to a much wider circle of readers. Except for a few isolated cases such as Lamennais -- and Father Castets (see p. 51) -- I have found no author who continued to defend the authenticity of the EzV after 1822. This is not to say that the EzV was no longer to be the object of discussion and research; rather the opposite is true.Some authors turn their attention -- eventually their sarcasm -- to Voltaire and his followers, and to their interpretation of the EzV. Even before the true nature of the text became known some of Voltaire's adversaries criticized him for considering it to be older than the Bible. Chretien-Frederic Schmid, for example, without explicitly referring to the EzV, rejects (1766:32) Voltaire's conception of the antiquity of the Veda generally: "The author has not proved anything; he takes advantage of arguments which, in part, establish the truth of the Christian religion, to show us that that ritual of the Bracmans is authentic. The point is that one should not merely examine the style and subject-matter of a writer; one should also confront him with History. If facts are disavowed by History, they cannot be true, however simple one imagines them." And the abbe Guenee (I772:2.329)30 asks the question: "It is not strange that an author, who is willing to overlook the absurdities of the Vedam, the Cormovedam, etc., in favor of a few beautiful precepts -- which have in all probability been copied after our Sacred Books --, feels obliged to hold against the latter even the most meaningless inconsistencies, nay even scribal errors?"
Those who accepted the EzV as a genuine document became a far easier target after 1782 and, even more so, after 1822. In a review of volume fourteen of the Asiatic Researches August Wilhelm Schlegel says (1824:50) that Ellis' article "... unravels a pious fraud ('ein frommer Betrog') which was aimed at the followers of the Brahmin religion, but which accidentally came to Europe and led a number of famous writers into error." About the 1778 edition Schlegel (51) has this to say: "in it the editor, as prominent a man as the Baron de Saint-Croix, who has earned a high reputation in other fields, has used a vast range of knowledge to pile error upon error. He rejects Voltaire's opinion of the high age of the book, but he never thought of questioning its authenticity. Voltaire milked a he-goat, and Sainte-Croix held a strainer under it ('Der eine milkt den Bock, und der andre halt ein Sieb unter')."
Unlike Paulinus, Schlegel (1824:56) is ready to excuse Voltaire's mistake; he did not have the means to detect the forgery. The fact that he attached so much importance to the document only shows his deep insight. But he cannot forgive Anquetil Duperron "who has lived in India for a long time, and professes to be an expert on Brahmanic theology." The varying degrees to which Schlegel holds the three early interpreters responsible are echoed by
Mill (1831:v) who is even harsher on Anquetil: " ... the editor, the able antiquary Baron St. Croix, whose delusion is more to be wondered at than Voltaire's, who introduced the MS. to the French King's library.
That Anquetil du Perron should have been among those imposed upon by this work, is yet more extraordinary: for notwithstanding his garrulity and want of judgement, he certainly differed from the others in possessing some knowledge of the genuine Vedas, though only through the awkward and often mistaken medium of a Persian translation. His Upanishad, or (as the Persian translation has barbarously rendered the usual pronunciation of that word in Upper Hindustan) Oupnekhat, published at Strasburg in 1801, in two volumes 4to. has long been the only considerable specimen of the preceptive part of the Vedas that is accessible to European readers. Even there (Pref. p. xviii) the Ezour Vedam is spoken of as genuine."The anonymous author in L'Ami de la Religion refers (anon. 1836b:258) to the article in The British colonial Intelligencer. "A foreign journal provides us with new and rather curious evidence of the profound wisdom and critical skill of one of our most famous philosophers of the last century." At the end of his article (260) he concludes: "To be sure, this is not the first example of scientific blunders by the philosopher from Ferney; but it bears pointing out how this sworn enemy of the sacred monuments of Revelation has allowed himself to be mystified. Here is another chapter to be added to the mistakes pointed out in the past by the abbe Guenee in his Lettres de quelques Juifs." In the French edition31 of the lectures delivered in 1835 in the Palazzo Odescalchi, Cardinal Wiseman (1841:2.xxxviii-xxxix) points out that, when the translation of the EzV came to Europe, Voltaire and his friends did not miss the opportunity to use it as evidence to show that the Christians had borrowed their dogmas from the heathens. "Well, one has discovered in recent years that the Ezour-Vedam was composed in 1621 by a pious missionary, to facilitate the propagation of Christianity among the Hindus." According to Laouenan (1884:244) the principal victim of the EzV story was Voltaire himself, "which shows how easily the free-thinkers comply with anything that seems to them to be hostile to the Christian Religion."
More recently, Pinard de la Boullaye, a Jesuit, rejoices (1922:213) that "actually, Voltaire was just about two thousand years off." Schwab refers (1934:97) to Voltaire "who, blindfolded, launched into the notorious hoax of the Ezour-Vedam." Castets (1935:3) exclaims: "How easy it was at that time, scientific assurance and a display of erudition that touched all bases." Of course, "the Philosophers imagined to have discovered in their Vedam a terrific weapon against the originality of the religion of Jesus Christ;" how wrong they were! Brumfitt states (1963:54) rather sarcastically: "Whether the Indians have been deceived is not recorded, but Voltaire certainly has." In more recent literature Pomeau (1956:360) stands alone in defending Voltaire; the Jesuits themselves had prepared him to be ready to find a fundamental theism in the religions of all ancient peoples.
Reactions to the Christian EzV itself vary considerably, from full-hearted approval of an eminently worthy cause to deep felt indignation at a truly ignominious undertaking. They are commensurate with the authors' being more or less favorably disposed toward conversions to Roman Catholicism in general and conversions by Jesuits in particular. It will be enough to cite a few examples.
The abbe Bach, a Jesuit, is most appreciative (1848:67) of "the spirit of the Ezour-Vedam": "Leaving aside its artistic value, one should at least recognize that it was both an ingenious and apostolic idea. In this way the missionary32 wanted to prepare the spirit and the heart of the Brahmins, and gradually lead them to a complete conversion. To be understood by them, one had to use their own language, and, to allow them to see the light, one had first to heal their sick eyes. Those who know the genius of the Brahmins will judge whether this method was not far more rational than reading the Bible to them at once." Another Jesuit, Joseph Dahlmann (1891:20) is equally enthusiastic: "while composing his religious poem the author33 was guided by the same aspiration which we also detect in his fellow-Jesuit Beschi, namely the destruction of the bastion of the Brahman caste and their sacred scriptures, by creating a Christian literature in the splendor and fascination of the Sanskrit language. It was a monumental enterprise, which in the entire range of missionary activities is matched solely by the literary productions in the field of Chinese language and literature."
Willem Caland, professor of Sanskrit at Utrecht, was evidently impressed by certain aspects of the EzV; he follows (1918:292) Schlegel quoted earlier, and calls the text "a pious fraud" (pia fraus).
Caland admits that it is a "tendentious work" and a "forged document," but he adds: "However, the scope and realization of the book are highly ingenious, and the author proceeds very tactfully in combatting Hinduism. He does not reject all aspects of Hinduism; for instance, he grants them their cosmological and cosmographical theories, which are not in contradiction with the Christian doctrine, nor does he introduce any new terminology. He only tries to make them believe, that the Vedam is something entirely different from what they believe it to be. The modern reader soon realizes that the term Vedam really refers to the Christian doctrine." The term "pia fraus" was also used, without further comment, by another indologist Moriz Winternitz (1909: 12n = 1927:13n =1959:11n). Antonin Debidour, the author of a study on Voltaire's knowledge of India, describes (1924:30-1) the EzV as an ingenious manoeuver to destroy the beliefs that existed among Vaisnava Brahmans, subsequently to convert them to Christianity. Joseph Mansion, formerly professor at the University of Liege, considers (1931:20n1) the EzV to be a work of apostolic zeal. He even refuses to qualify it as a work of Christian proselytism -- "Christ is not even mentioned it it" --, and calls it "philosophical anti-idolatrous propaganda." "The author combats polytheism and tries to establish for the Hindus, through the medium of their own traditions, the belief in one God, Creator and judge of good and evil."
Peter von Bohlen represents the neutral approach. He speaks (1830:1.134) of an interesting "literary forgery which blindfolded scholars for a long time, at the expense of the Indian religion," and this notwithstanding the fact that there were enough elements to recognize it as "an apocryphal compilation" (1.135). "The purpose of the book is to destroy the Indian religion without, however, overtly replacing it with Christianity" (1.136). Friedrich Adelung (1830:94; 1832:76; 1837:121) too restricts himself to qualifying the EzV as a "forgery ... at the instigation of the Jesuits."
Right from the beginning Ellis (1822:1) was rather harsh on the EzV: "... an instance of literary forgery or rather, as the object of the author or authors, was certainly not literary distinction, of religious imposition without parallel." Elsewhere (35n2) he adds, with reference to the pseudo-Vedas generally: "The intention is evidently to destroy the existing belief, without regarding consequences or caring whether a blank be substituted for it or not."34 Julien Vinson has written thrice on the EzV. In 1902 he refers to "the notorious Ezour-Vedam, that Indian apocrypha, which shook the literary world just before the Revolution"(281). Twenty-one years later Vinson seems discouraged and says (1923: 172) that the EzV no longer deserves the attention of scholars: "The Ezour-Vedam is a pastiche, a supposititious book, a fraud, that passed unnoticed in India, but which one has tried in vain to give some credit in Europe. It is without value and without interest. Scholars should no longer waste their time on it."
The Rev. J. Murray Mitchell (1849:132n) did not think very highly of the EzV: "Mr. Ellis ... calls this imitation of the Vedas, 'an instance of literary forgery or rather of religious imposition without parallel'. Mr. Ellis doubtless means without parallel in point of boldness; for it is by no means remarkable in point of success. It was a complete misnomer to term the forgery a Veda; for in style, metre, and contents it differs as widely from the true Vedas, as the odes of Catullus from the laws of the XII Tables." Max Muller also labeled 0859:5) the EzV "a very coarse forgery." The anonymous account in the Oriental Herald (anon. 1827:236) passes a severe judgement. Speaking of the use which Voltaire made of the EzV, the author adds: "But the discovery of its forgery sufficiently refutes the notion, and easily accounts for the resemblance in question, while it adds another proof to the many already on record, of how little reliance is to be placed on theological authorities generally, when, even for the propagation of a faith which peculiarly teaches men to abhor dissimulation and to denounce fraud, and expressly prohibits the doing of evil, even if good is to arise therefrom, men of the highest talent and attainments could be found to use these noble gifts in forging and passing off as authentic, and of divine origin, dogmas and doctrines originating in their own zealous but unscrupulous imaginations." It will be clear from this passage why the Italian translator (anon. 1836a:136) suspected the author of these lines to be a Protestant. Another Protestant, and historian of Protestant missions, Julius Richter, introduces (1906-1908:67) his remarks on the EzV as follows: "The fundamental dishonesty of the Jesuitical system is perhaps revealed in the most striking way of all by the remarkable literary forgeries which the Jesuits committed, probably about the middle of the seventeenth century."
Finally, there are the reactions of those who were themselves involved in composing Sanskrit treatises to combat Hinduism and promote conversion to Christianity. On the one hand, William Hodge Mill (1831:iv-v) dissociates himself and his own Christa-sangita from the composers of the pseudo-Vedas and their tactics in the following strong terms: "The style of the mythological poems [i.e. the Mahabharata and Ramayana] has been indeed before attempted by Christian imitators for a different purpose, -- but one to which, from Indian usage, it is equally well adapted, as the celebrated episode of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, may suffice to shew, - that of conveying moral or metaphysical instruction in the form of dialogue. The attempt in this manner to restore the great truths of natural religion, which the Brahmanical system has obscured or depraved; to refute by arguments drawn from themselves the polytheistic and pantheistic systems, to which the vulgar and the sage are severally addicted, is a work strictly within the province of a Christian instructor; and, if executed with as much of good faith as of spirit and ability, would have reflected undoubted honour on that celebrated Society from which the project originated. But when, as if to defeat the success of the design with all Heathens of knowledge and integrity, we see the names of Narada, Jaimini, and other teachers of Brahmanic theology, introduced as refuting and denouncing it, and the name of the most ancient and sacred of all Hindu writings, prefixed as the real title of the composition, (though the Vedic style is widely different from that of the Puranas in which these pretended Vedas are written), no skill in the execution can screen from censure the authors and abettors of a forgery equally disingenious and imprudent." On the other hand, there is the most interesting and unexpected reaction on the part of John Muir, in 1838. Muir had not seen the pseudo-Vedas; he anticipated that he might not agree with certain aspects of these -- Roman Catholic -- texts. But at the same time, since the work had been done, he wondered whether, with the necessary changes, they might not be usefully employed in his own Christian debate with Hinduism. In a letter to the editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer Muir (1838:507-8) proposed the inquiry should be made whether the Pseudo Vedas, written by the Roman Catholic Missionaries on the Coromandel Coast do not contain much valuable matter which might be easily adapted, with a little modification and retrenchment, to the refutation of the Brahminical errors, philosophical or popular. The propriety, or even necessity of meeting with an exposure in their native Sanskrit the many perilous and delusive doctrines of the six Darsanas (or schools of philosophy), and the other errors of Hinduism seems to admit of no reasonable doubt; and if such a confrontation is to be found in the labours of the Romanists, as with some expurgation, revision and addition could be rendered satisfactory and conclusive, it should be seized upon with avidity .... The dross could easily be left and the pure gold extracted, refined, stamped and circulated." I shall show later in this volume that Muir's search for the Sanskrit pseudo-Vedas remained unsuccessful and suggest a reason why this was so.
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Notes:1. This must be the copy described by Havens-Torrey (1959:49). It is not mentioned by Fernand Caussy: "Inventaire des manuscrits de la bibliotheque de Voltaire conservee a la bibliotheque imperiale publique de Saint-Petersbourg," in Nouvelles archives des missions sciesntifiques et litteraires, n.s. 7, 1913, 1-96. It does appear in Bibliotheque de Voltaire. Catalogue des livres, Editions de l'Academie des Sciences de l'USSR, Moscow-Leningrad, 1961, p. 1015, No. II ("Annexes manuscrites") 26a. The source of this attribution is apparently Havens-Torrey p. 206, No. 2184.
2. Voltaire announces it in a letter to the librarian Jean Capperonnier, on 13 July 1761 (Best, 9107). It was sent on 14 August 1761.
3. Henri Omont: Bibliotheque Nationale. Nouvelles acquisitions francaises I (nos. 1-3060), Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1899, p. 69.
4. It is clear from other correspondence that Voltaire previously gave Vernes another manuscript that did belong to "feu Mr de la Persiliere." Vernes seems to have asked Voltaire whether the EzV also came from the same source. On Vernes, see Paul Chaponniere: "Un pasteur genvois ami de Voltaire," in Revue d'histoire litteraire de la France 36, 1929, 181-201, especially p. 193.
5. Misprint for Cormovedan. See note 11.
6. Translated -- adapted from the 1766 translation, p. 102 -- from Oeuvres completes 1785, 16.79-80.
7. Translated -- adapted from the 1768 translation, p. 63 -- from Ouevres completes 1785, 27.221-2. "L'abbe Bazin" is the name under which the Philosophie de l'histoire was first published (1765). It was attacked, among others, by Pierre Henri Larcher of the College Mazarin, under the title: Supplement a la philosophie de l'histoire de feu M. l'abbe Bazin (Amsterdam 1767). Voltaire replied in La defense de mon oncle (Geneva 1767).
8. On Louis Barthelemy, see p. 84.
9. Henri Omont: Bibliotheque Nationale. Nouvelles acquisitions francaises III (nos. 6501-10000), Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1900, p. 244. The manuscript itself carries on its initial page, the note: "Volume of 58 folios. 18 March 1896."
10. On Antoine Court de Gebelin, a Protestant minister, see Charles Dardier: Court de Gebelin. Notice sur sa vie et ses oeuvres, avec notes et pieces justificatives (Nimes: F. Chastanier, 1890), and Dictionnaire de Biographie Francaise 52, 1961, 999. He was born at Nimes in 1725 (Dardier 6, 19) or in Geneva in February 1719 (DBF); he died at Franconville (Seine-et-Oise) on 12 May 1784.
11. Sinner's statement that Voltaire also deposited a copy of the "Cormo Vedam" results from a misinterpretation of passages quoted pp. 5-6, in which Voltaire refers to the Cormovedam, but not as distinct from the EzV.
12. NGB 43, 1864, 144-6.
13. Pp. 376, 377, 384, 385, 386 = 1775 ed. pp. 230, 231, 235, 236, 238.
14. P. 394 = 1775 ed. p. 242.
15. 1775 ed. p. 315, not reproduced in the 1793 translation.
16. 1th 1778:23 ("Vorrede").
17. Anquetil possessed an "exemplaire tire sur grand papier d'Hollande, format grand in-8, tres rare" (Catalogue des livres de M. A.H. Anquetil-Duperron, Paris: Tilliard, 1805, p. 41).
18. 1th (1778:23): "... the modesty, which enhances his birth and capabilities, did not allow him to mention his name. I owe the liberty to do so to his special friendship which I have enjoyed for several years." Max Muller (1861:148n) makes the erroneous statement that "the French translation was sent to Voltaire and printed by him in 1778."
19. Sacy (1809:xiii): "In writing his preliminary observations Mr. de Sainte-Croix wanted to show how dubious the so highly praised antiquity of the religious dogmas and sacred books of the Indians is." Cf. NBG 43, 1864, 145.
20. "1th translated the book from French and by doing so, drew attention to Sanskrit literature" (Escher, in J.S. Ersch and J.G. Gruber: Allgemeine Encyklopadie der Wissenschaften und Kunste, sect. 2, vol. 26, Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1847, p. 252).
21. It is surprising that Foucher d'Obsonville's "Discour preliminaire" to Bagavadam ou Doctrine Divine, Ouvrage indien, Canonique ... (Paris: Tilliard, 1788) does not refer to the EzV. Foucher returned to Europe in 1771, to find that the Indian whom he had paid to translate the Bhagavata had already sent it to Europe, in 1769. He wrote his "Discour" in 1887. Had he been convinced by Sonnerat's arguments (see p. 13)?
22. De Open-Deure Tot het Verborgen Heydendom ... Door D. Abrahamus Rogerius, Leyden: Francois Hackes, 1651, p. 26. Edited by W. Caland, in: Werken ultgegeven door de Linschoten-Vereeniging, 10, The Hague: Nijhoff, 1915, p. 21. Guignes probably used the French translation: L porte ouverte. Pour parvenir a la connoissance du paganisme cache ... Traduite en Francois par le Sieur Thomas La Grue, Amsterdam: Jean Schipper, 1670, p. 35.
23. Mill (1831:vi): "In the censure which this able Carmelite proceeds to pass on the absence of all critical judgment here displayed by the philosopher of Ferney, and the easy credulity of those on whom he could impose such a composition for the second Veda of the Brahmanical theology, no intelligent reader can fail to concur as well deserved. But it is singular, that amidst so much virtuous indignation at these attempts to delude the European public, he should so entirely forget the confessed falsehood of his brother missionary, in practising precisely the same imposition on the Hindus."
24. Paulinus (1791:315) states that, if one studies Indian religion and philosophy without any knowledge of Indian languages, Indian books, etc., they inevitably remain unintelligible and obscure. And he continues: "For a towering heap of such dreams, see La guida scientifica, vol. 1, Naples: Domenica Sangiacomo, 1791, part 2, chapter 5, pp. 459 sqq. This superb scientific leader who, a blind man himself, accumulates hallucination upon hallucination without clearing any of them, offers himself as a guide to others! Among the major productions of the effervescent minds of Europe he also cites les observations preliminaires sur l'Ezourvedam pp. 13 to 172, published at Yverdon in 1777."
25. Johnston (1775-1849) is best known as the reorganizer of the Government of Ceylon. See DNB 10, 1908, 940-1.
26. As far as I have been able to find out, the account originally appeared in the Oriental Herald (1827). It was reprinted, first, in The British Catholic colonial quarterly Intelligencer (1834), and, subsequently, translated into Italian in the Annali delle scienze religiose (1836). The latter journal adds (136) that it looks like an article written by a Protestant. See References, under anon. 1827.
27. Ellis rose in the ranks of the East India Company from a writer in Madras (1796) to judge of the zillah of Masulipatam (1806), collector of land customs in Madras Presidency (1809), and collector of Madras (1810). He died at Ramnad, 10 March 1819. See DNB 6, 1908, 694. Hough (1839:2.239n2) calls him "a gentleman deeply read in brahminical lore, and imbued with Hindoo predilections. In the knowledge of Oriental literature he was equalled by few. He was likewise a great admirer of the talents of some of the Jesuit missionaries: but he was too upright a man not to denounce such an imposture as this."
28. The paper was read at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, on 6 August 1817. See anon. 1818:188.
29. Langles published (1823) his analysis of the fourteenth volume of the Asiatic Researches not only because of the importance of its contents, but also in view of "its rarity in England itself where it has not been reprinted, and in the rest of Europe where only very few copies have been received."
30. The Lettres de quelques Juifs were first published in 1769 in one volume, but were soon extended to four volumes. See Fr. Duffo: L'abbe Guenee. Agrege de l'Universite, adversaire de Voltaire (1717-1803), Paris: P. Lethielleux, 1933, pp. 10-1.
31. The "Introduction analytique" (1841:2.v-xl) does not appear in the original English edition o f1836. Nor does it appear in the only other English edition -- later than the French -- which I have seen: the fifth edition of 1861. Yet, the "Introduction analytique" is by Wiseman himself.
32. We shall see later that Bach believed in the authorship of Father Calmette.
33. Dahlmann too believed that Calmette is the author, see p. 45.
34. This sentence, slightly modified, appeared already in the report on the session of the Asiatic Society (anon. 1818:189), and is repeated by Hough (1839:2.240).